Tips for Avoiding Extinction

The innovations associated with Web 2.0 are cracking through the stone wall of old-school print media. A recent study by The Bivings Group found that 92% of the 100 largest US newspapers are showcasing video content, a figure that was up 31% from last year. Further findings indicated that 97% of these papers were syndicating their site through partial-text RSS feeds, while almost half were podcasting in some capacity.

Even more exciting, 95% of these papers are maintaining at least one reporter blog, with 88% of the papers also allowing comments on the blog posts. Where these papers need to perform better, however, is in their willingness to network with other blogs. Only 22% of these papers feature a blogroll, down from 30% last year. Perhaps an unwillingness to link to non-traditional media sources (personal blogs, small company blogs, consultant blogs) is in play here.

The litmus test will be how well these print media players adapt to the principle of innovative, user-led content that defines social media in the online space. The Bivings Group study indicates that 25% of these papers are accepting user-generated content, while only 5% are incorporating some element of social networking into the site. Obviously, there is room for improvement here. And elbowing their way into this channel will not be easy for these traditional offline players, as the vanguard of social media (Youtube, MySpace) has become well-entrenched (good luck, hulu). But the ground is certainly fertile, as another study done on data for the first half of 2007 suggests that 63% of web users have viewed streaming news clips online, though likely only a fraction of this consumption took place on the sites of the major papers.

Still, whatever the case, it's an exciting step forward for an industry that has long borne the stigma of being stuck in the past century, saddled with an antiquated business model. The Washington Post has been the most innovative in this respect and, if others follow their lead, we may find that the death of the big paper has been greatly exaggerated.

Comments